When Fox News interviewed Reza Aslan they opened themselves up to a firestorm of ridicule. Aslan, author of Zealot, a scholarly biography of Jesus the man, is a Muslim. Lauren Green, the Fox anchor, insisted that a Muslim could not possibly write a book about Jesus. She and other right-wing critics of Aslan's book, are trying to sell the lie that Aslan is hiding the fact that he's a Muslim (he mentions this on page 2 of the book, which Green apparently did not read).
Apparently Fox thinks Aslan should wear a crescent armband everywhere he goes so that we can tell he's a Muslim. I guess the Persian name didn't clue them in.
Fox ignores the fact that Aslan had once converted to evangelical Christianity, and that his mother and his wife are Christians, and that his brother-in-law is a Christian pastor. Aslan is also a religious scholar with four degrees, one in the New Testament, and fluent in biblical Greek. So he obviously understands Christianity from the inside out. Fox also ignores the fact that Islam reveres Jesus as a holy figure. Many Muslims believe Jesus was born of virgin birth, that he will return near the day of judgment to restore justice and that he had miraculous powers to heal. But they don't believe he is one with God.
But that's true of many Christian sects, which hold views on Christ not all that different from Islam. Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe in the Trinity at all. Mormons don't believe that Jesus is God, they believe he is the son of god and one of many gods. The Unification Church, Christian Scientists and certain Pentecostals also reject the Trinity.
Saying that Aslan, a Muslim, cannot write a book about Jesus is like saying that a Christian Old Testament scholar cannot write a book about Moses. Because Moses was a Jew, and Jews have for centuries been persecuted, murdered and castigated as Christ-killers by all of Christendom. In the middle of the last century Christian Germans stood by and watched Hitler commit genocide against Jews, largely because of that antisemitic religious sentiment. The only reason fundamentalist Christians seem to tolerate Jews these day is that the return of the Jews to Jerusalem is a prerequisite for the End Times, when the Antichrist attacks Israel. Yes, Christians want to see Israel restored so that millions of Jews can be killed.
Monotheistic religions are sort of like releases of operating systems. Judaism is Monotheism 1.0. The Pharaoh Akhenaten's worship of the solar deity Aten was Monotheism 1.1. Christianity is Monotheism 2.0, with a little polytheism thrown in with the Trinity. Roman Catholicism is Monotheism 2.1, and Eastern Orthodoxy is Monotheism 2.2. Islam is Monotheism 3.0, with the polytheism taken out again. Protestantism is Monotheism 2.1.5, with the indulgences taken out. There are hundreds of branches of Christianity, with all sorts of heretical beliefs. Mormonism comes in at about Monotheism 2.1.9.1, with the reintroduction of polygamy and polytheism on a massive scale, then there's Monotheism 2.1.9.2, which is Mormonism with polygamy taken out again, but all the polytheism.
What's most revealing about the Fox interview with Aslan is the utter rejection of the very possibility of scholarly research. In the minds of the Fox anchors, editors, producers and viewers, it is only possible to write books that are either outright attacks against Jesus or a glowing hagiography praising him. In their minds a Muslim cannot write a fair biography about the life and times of the historical Jesus, just as a Democrat could not possibly write an objective biography of Ronald Reagan (even though millions of Democrats voted for Reagan).
This reveals everything you need to know about Fox News: their motto of "fair and balanced" is completely false. They don't believe it's ever possible to be objective about anything. And the interview with Aslan proves the point: Fox News cannot give a Muslim a fair interview: they're just interested in pushing a false narrative that hews to their preconceived notions that Muslims hate Christians.
This is why they and their viewers reject scientific research that disagrees with their political agenda. Because they are innately incapable of separating their own beliefs and prejudices from facts, they believe it is impossible for others to do so. They feel scientists are constantly attacking them by producing evidence that conservatives are wrong, when the scientists are just reporting the facts they're finding. You can tell this is so because so many scientists frequently report findings that show that their own conclusions were incorrect. Unlike conservatives, most scientists admit it when they're wrong.
This also shows why Fox News is so dangerous: they are constantly selling the false narrative that Christianity and Islam are at war. They want to take the immoral actions of a few Muslim terrorists and besmirch the honor and motives of all Muslims. This is what's so evil about the conservative worldview: everything is a battle to death and no one should be given any quarter.
It can be difficult to keep your beliefs from coloring your language when you write about something. But as long as a writer discloses his personal history and potential conflicts of interest, and includes citations to other works upon which the research is based -- which Aslan does -- the reader will be fully aware of the possible slant and take it into account.
But what's really funny is that all Fox News really did with that hatchet job was make Reza Aslan richer. Zealot had climbed to the #1 spot on Amazon.com by Sunday, and Random House has ordered another 50,000 copies be printed.
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